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Home sweet home

Opposing teams don't walk into McKale Center thinking they cannot leave with a victory anymore. The 71-game home winning streak from 1987 to 1992 is a mere memory and, thanks to New Mexico's 70-68 upset of Arizona on Dec. 21, so is the recent 37-game streak.

While Arizona's 46-1 record at McKale Center during the last three seasons is something most college programs could only dream of, players and coaches have been grumbling recently, saying the building isn't loud enough.

Part of the reason why McKale doesn't generate as much noise as other buildings its size could be because there is no designated student section. Approximately 2,400 of McKale's 14,489 seats are given to students, and student tickets are scattered behind the baskets and throughout the upper decks.

Last season, the UA Athletic Department decided to split the season ticket packages into two seasons, A and B, so more students could go to games. On the flipside, that meant students could miss out on half the home schedule, plus one or two marquee games against Stanford, Michigan State and UCLA.

"I'd love to see us get a student section. It would give more students a chance to go to games," redshirt freshman forward Luke Walton says.

If a student does win the ticket lottery, held in the beginning of October, the seats are randomly assigned when he or she picks up the tickets. The system, which could see the most die-hard fan end up watching from the rafters and the most apathetic fan watching from courtside seats, has always been criticized by UA students.

But, as UA Athletic Director Jim Livengood says, many students failed to pick up their tickets, leaving the department with no choice but to stay loyal to alumni and fans who pay top-dollar to keep their season tickets, year-in, year-out.

After silencing crowds at Stanford, Texas, UCLA and Arizona State, UA head coach Lute Olson says playing in a hostile environment brings out the best in the team. Arizona is consistently a top draw on the road, and in four away losses this season - Southern California, Louisiana State, Oregon State and Oregon - students at each school stormed the court after the final buzzer.

"We always know when we play on the road, it's going to be a packed house," Olson says. "We'd be disappointed if that's not the case. We play better when it's loud and rowdy."

On their home court, the Wildcats say they are more comfortable and, as a result, more complacent. On the road, they find it easier to keep their focus and fight for 40 minutes because the opposing fans are always on top of them.

"I feel too comfortable at home, really," freshman guard Gilbert Arenas says.

Against Stanford on Jan. 8, Arizona handed the then-No. 1 Cardinal its first loss of the season. Maples Pavilion, with its student section next to the court and its shaking floor, is one of the most difficult environments in the country to play in, but Arizona managed to pull off the upset.

"I like when we play in front of rowdy, drunken students," Arenas says. "Up at Stanford and Cal, they knew everything about you. I like that."

Back at McKale, players and coaches complained that the crowd was too lethargic, expending more energy to tell a fan to sit down than to cheer.

As Arizona built up a 21-point lead against Arizona State on Feb. 26, the McKale Center crowd went from rowdy to lazy, and the lead dwindled to three points. Eventually, the crowd got back on their feet and helped cheer Arizona to victory, but only when the game seemed in danger.

"We need that crowd involved," Olson says. "When the crowd is involved, it keeps the adrenaline for our guys going and, down the stretch, that really helps us."

In theory, giving students the best seats in the house to create a significant home-court advantage sounds easy, but there are people who have paid a lot of money for courtside seats for years.

Livengood says talking about creating a student section is much easier than actually doing something about it.

"To do that, we're talking about tremendous political and revenue impacts," he says.

McKale Center has been sold out since the 1987-88 season, the same year the athletic department gave students their current seats. With only three to nine seats opening up every year, the waiting list for season tickets is long and competitive.

A priority point system, based on how much money you've donated to the university, determines who gets those tickets. Money donated goes to the Wildcat Scholarship Fund, which helps the UA remain competitive and financially stable in every sport.

Livengood says the department talks to ASUA members every spring about ideas on how to develop a system that could make everybody happy. One such system that has been proposed is to give students a designated area, where seats in certain sections would be general admission.

"They can determine what happens," Livengood says. "We will do any system that ASUA wants to do."

In the Pacific 10 Conference, Arizona is behind only Washington and Washington State, two schools that have attendance problems, in the number of season tickets given to students, Livengood says.

McKale Center is also the third-largest arena in the Pac-10, behind Washington's Key Arena and USC's Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

"(Having a student section) would be ideal, but if not, oh well. The crowd's going to be loud no matter what," Walton says.

Perhaps feeling the pressure, the McKale crowd has stepped up its intensity in the last three home games, against USC, UCLA and ASU. With Stanford and Cal coming to Tucson this weekend, Arizona's players are hoping their crowd will be more behind them than ever as the Wildcats shoot for the Pac-10 championship.

"I think the last few games, the crowd's been loud and noisy," freshman guard Jason Gardner said. "Over time, it takes the crowd a little while to get into it, but the last five or six games, they have been."